207. Missing Fads with Brian Stoffel

In this episode of Investing Unscripted, Jason and Jeff are joined by longtime friend and investing educator Brian Stoffel. Brian shares his fascinating journey from a middle school writing teacher in Washington, D.C., to discovering Warren Buffett in Costa Rica, and eventually becoming a prominent writer for The Motley Fool. The trio dives deep into Brian's investing evolution—blending the extreme optimism of David Gardner with the anti-fragility of Nassim Taleb—and the painful valuation lessons learned during the 2022 bear market. They also tackle the burning question: "Will AI kill SaaS?", exploring the protective moats of high switching costs, physical world connections, and mission-critical proprietary data. 01:47 Dave Ramsey Story 04:00 From Teacher to Fool 07:25 Buffett Book and Costa Rica 11:56 Berkshire Meeting Takeaways 18:33 Evolving Investing Style 25:30 AI and SaaS Moats 29:15 SaaS Winners in Selloff 29:47 Shopify and Toast Moats 31:56 Physical World Edge 32:54 Proprietary vs Synthetic Data 34:23 Leadership and SaaS Evolution 36:17 Margins TAM and Volume 37:23 Compute Costs and Jevons 43:16 AI Everywhere Anecdotes 45:58 Investor Mindset Rules 47:32 Fads Position Sizing 52:33 Luck Skill and Plugs 56:51 Closing Thanks Disclaimer Check out Brian’s work: https://www.stockinvestingmentor.com Companies mentioned: AMZN, AXON, CRM, CRWD, DDD, GOOG, GOOGL, NET, NFLX, NVDA, SHOP, SSYS, TOST, TTD Find where to listen & subscribe, portfolio contests, and contact information at https://investingunscripted.com ***************************************** To get 15% off any paid plan at fiscal.ai, visit https://fiscal.ai/unscripted Listen to the Chit Chat Stocks Podcast for discussions on stocks, financial markets, super investors, and more. Follow the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube ***************************************** Join our PatreonSubscribe to our portfolio on Savvy Trader Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices